Nesheim Online Blog

STARTUP BUILDERS LEARN TO LIVE WITH FEAR - not avoid it

A Silicon Valley pro and friend sent this to me today:

“Hi John, Just a share.  Caught tail (maybe a tale 😀) end of a tv interview of a guy claiming he had started many ‘successful startups.’  He was asked if a book were written about his life as an entrepreneur, what should it be called?  ‘Risk Adverse’ was his response.  And then he thought for a bit, ‘That is the bottom line for success, to not be afraid of risk.  So, my title would be an oxymoron.’

I responded to the pro with this: “I think that’s pretty common discussion about how a startup person tells others how he responds with reactions to fear: 'No fear in me'. It’s what I hear so often from people who later told me in confidence they had been terrified. I get annoyed at how often I read about “gurus” focus on telling others to have “no fear". They give mountain-top advice on how to be strong as steel, overcome impossible odds and so on. I find that naïve at best, and dangerous.”

“Deep down inside our secret insides, our soul place, we know we’ll always have to face something that triggers our fears, whether it comes from startups or something else that enters our lives. Thus, it is my contention that we are better advised “Let’s face it, we know that when it hits us we’ll instantly react in fear - so why not expect such a likely response and get prepared for how you’ll respond to what triggered that fearful moment and how you'll deal successfully with it?”

I continued, “For me it’s all about facing reality -- not about avoiding reality. Something is going to trigger the fear that is going to hit you, so how about saying to yourself 'What can I do now to anticipate those spine-chilling events, especially those that get me starting praying to God for help?' I think it wise advice to prepare yourself for how you’ll respond at those life challenging moments. It’s what military personnel are trained to do, for example, to stay alive and succeed. When a person can repeatedly respond constructively to encounters that trigger intense fear, she'll find it’s a super unfair advantage in coping well with life, especially when doing a startup.”

I wish you The Best on your Adventure!

JOHN

STARTUP BUILDERS ARE SKILLED FIX-IT PEOPLE

Startup builders are special individuals, masters at moving a startup from chaos to managed growth. They’ve been there before and learned in the school of hard knocks. I think they are priceless, worth the extra effort required to find and recruit them. First timers can do a lot of damage while learning.

When startup builders arrive at your place, they expect to see a big challenge in front of them: How to quickly put chaos into constructive order – so your people soon switch from fire-fighting and instead move into the first steps of execution of a realistic plan for growth that they can visualize and manage, one that could make your fledgling startup “awesome!”

They don’t spend months studying a company before acting. The moment they arrive, I’ve found they have no hesitation: they jump in, and within minutes begin the fixing, the cleanup. Their experience gives them the confidence that they’ll know what needs to be done next.

Over ensuing months they’ll gain a wider grasp of the longer-term objective of your company and help you modify and adjust the underlying longer-term company plan.

The results can be stunningly effective. In a consumer startup that was struggling in chaos, I watched a freshly hired customer service manager step in and go to work. Two months later the CEO had her deliver her report about what she had done single-handed during her first two months after joining the fresh e-commerce business:

• Collected from various employees the scattered bunch of unanswered customer complaints (175);
• Contacted each complainant on the list, while responding hourly to fresh incoming customer issues (6 new ones per hour);
• Escalated and called on the phone half a dozen irate customers (words not printable here ~ “I’m never going to order from your company again!”) (Issues: customers who had paid but not been delivered to, or were billed twice, or were sent the wrong order, etc.).
• After two months of cleanup, four of the six most troubled customers were raving about the company’s products and had re-ordered; all 175 unanswered issues were resolved; incoming issues were being immediately engaged and if needed escalated.
• Plus, she had crafted and started to implement a plan to boost the company’s customer service up to “white glove” status.

Yes, startup builders are awesome!

In one startup I was coaching, a couple of these fix-it-minded managers quickly free up a new product completion log-jam caused by inexperienced, early stage techees. They were stuck and frustrated, unable to finally finish the first product. In a few weeks, the experienced startup builders had figured out a doable path to launch. Given a few changes and crisp decisions, the tech team returned to delivering productive results. After the product launched, everyone celebrated – with a sigh of relief.

Another time I watched a dozen managers and employees stuck in a circular firing squad seeking blame for a botched new product marketing process that had nearly killed the fledgling startup. An experienced fix-it hire stepped in and re-directed their (angry) energy and (immobile) skills. Their attitudes and the situation shifted from blame to solution. The resulting product launch (finally) earned the fix-it manager the trust of the company and boosted their confidence that the next time they would do things in a great (different) way.

BOTTOM LINE: Focus on hiring startup builders, people who are skilled at immediately fixing messes, converting chaos into managed growth. They will significantly contribute to powering your unfair advantage.

I wish you The Best on your Adventure!

JOHN

MANAGING A STARTUP CRISIS

It will happen. More than once.

Many events can trigger a crisis. Perhaps it could be a very bad product review (“How could they say that?”). Or it might be a series of Tweets with misinformation (competitors actually do that). Sometimes a huge customer stops using your service (without warning). Or a vice president admits to sexual misconduct (your star executive).

Some bad event will trigger a jolt to your emotions as you grasp that something horrible has happened. You realize this terrible situation is likely to severely impact – or even might destroy – your wonderful startup. Fear is immediately triggered, typically resulting in a wild rush to escape or stand frozen in the headlights. I’ve seen the best of the best react with cold, sweat breaking out on their foreheads. Numbness often swiftly follows.

Most first timers I’ve watched freeze, grasping for some way to get out of the mess (“This can’t be happening – make it go away!”). Others lapsed into old coping methods that in the past had distracted them (but again here they found themselves not taking immediate action to fix the mess).  Some experienced ensuing panic attacks and inability to take any action.

I observed the opposite in startup veterans. They had been through the terrible times before and were confident their skill to swiftly start working on resolving the situation. In a nutshell, I found the entrepreneurial veterans were able to function in spite of a crisis, and in some cases the mess showed just how amazing their leadership skills were. I also noted that serial entrepreneurs were rarely caught off guard – they knew bad things can happen and thus they had prepared some form of a general course of action in case a crisis event arrived.

You can do the same. Here is a crisis preparation checklist I’ve found helpful. It’s how Maynard Webb author of “Dear Founder” handles a crisis.[i]. Included are my suggestions for what I’ve found works for many startup leaders, first timers or veterans.

• What’s the magnitude?
  • “Is this a seasonal dip in monthly sales or has our leading product stopped selling at our top ten accounts?”
  • “Does the crisis involve just a few staff members or threaten the very existence of the company?”
  • “Is this as a one-meeting-fix or has it the potential of taking months of time to solve?”
• There’s no time to waste.
  • 100%. Veterans will stop all their other activities the same day the crisis arrives and focus on assessing and addressing the crisis situation.
  • CEOs will contact all direct reports the same day and, after brief discussions, schedule a group live session within 24 hours.
• Deploy your resources.
  • Start with your direct reports. After your first group meeting, assign them to specific, short term deliverables: put out the immediate fire and start work on repairs and a plan for recovery.
  • Begin with a second group meeting that meets weekly or, if the situation is life critical, make it a daily session until the immediate fire is out.
  • Veterans will quickly contact people in their network, conveying the crisis situation and soliciting advice. NOTE: A prepared CEO will have created a quickly accessible list of who to call in a crisis.
    • Board members get personal phone calls – text to set them up quickly.
    • Advisors and consultants are contacted and often are assigned work.
  • Get the right people in place.
    • You are likely to have to quickly move people into firefighting: send some to customers and others to suppliers, while others start talking to employees.
    • Some employees may be needed to promptly respond to customer emails and texts.
  • Have a backup plan. And a backup for the backup.
  • Swallow your pride. This is not about you, the CEO, it’s about how your company (people working together) can attack the problem, solve it, and get back on to the road of viable growth.
    • Be honest. Hiding will get you into deep, deep trouble: when people discover your coverups, they will begin to doubt your capability as their leader, plus their loyalty will drop a notch or more; they’ll begin looking for how close the exits are.
    • Declare facts – avoid speculation and guessing.
    • One veteran told me “It’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up that makes a crisis worse.”
  • Do everything possible to minimize impact for customers.
    • Street smart startup leaders avoid broadcasts of a crisis.
    • Veterans will have a short paragraph of the situation ready for sending to customers, if needed.
  • Communicate with everyone.
    • Tell the truth
    • Tell them the next steps.
    • Tell them when you will update them again.
  • Postmortems are essential.
    • What happened? When? Why? What was the source?
    • What did we learn from this crisis (to prepare better for the next one)?
  • From now on, plan for crises in advance. Try one crisis planning session per year.

[i] Dear Founder, 291-286.

I wish you The Best on your Adventure!

JOHN